Mixed bag of results for Team SA on opening day
JOHANNESBURG: A golden glow greeted the South African team at the Commonwealth Games with Henri Schoeman winning the first medal at the quadrennial showpiece yesterday.
The euphoria of Schoeman’s victory deflated slightly as the day progressed with the results not quite going the way of the SA contingent, with the exception of a few swimmers.
The men’s and women’s hockey teams bowed the knee in their respective matches, while the country’s bowlers did not have much luck either.
Golden boy Chad le Clos led the way in the swimming pool, where he qualified for what he hopes will be the first of many finals at the Games.
Le Clos won his 50m butterfly semi-final in 23.53 seconds with training partner Ryan Coetzee finishing behind him to book his place in a final at his maiden Games. Coetzee won his heat earlier in the day before clocking a new personal best of 23.79secs to march into today’s final.
The current queen of SA swimming Tatjana Schoenmaker also stands a chance of challenging for a medal at her first Commonwealth Games after reaching the 50m breaststroke final.
While it was widely reported that Schoenmaker had set a new African record in her heat when she clocked 30.92s, it did not get close to Penny Heyns’ 30.83 back in 1999.
It was nevertheless fast enough to qualify for the semi-finals, where she posted 31.01 for a chance at a medal.
The Proteas women’s hockey team lost 2-0 to England after they conceded goals in the first two quarters of the match. National coach Sheldon Rostron said there were some things they could change for the rest of the Games and hopefully get their campaign back on track.
“In general, I’m pretty happy with the play and the quality, and from the second quarter we definitely put in a really good performance,” Rostron said.
“We just gave away too much space and too many short corners, so we are not happy in that department.”
The men’s side went down 4-2 to Scotland after conceding three goals in the first 15 minutes before fighting back.
“The shock of the first chukka to go three down and then in the second period to get into our stride, it took us 15 minutes to start playing hockey,” said coach Mark Hopkins. “It is a young group of players coming together and it is their first experience, so we will go from strength to strength.”
The bowlers had a mixed bag on the greens with three wins and two draws, with 2014 Glasgow Games gold medallist Colleen Piketh opening her singles account with a win.
In the women’s 4 000m team pursuit the track cycling quartet of Ilze Bole, Charlene du Preez, Adelia Neethling and Elfriede Wolfaardt ended sixth out of seven teams in qualifying, but they did break the SA record with a time of 4 minutes 51.224 seconds, improving on the previous mark of 5:22.417.
The men’s team of Steve van Heerden, David Maree, Nolan Hoffman and Gert Fouche also set a new national record when they finished sixth out of eight teams in 4:11.711, lopping sevens seconds off the previous mark.